(
)
Like millions of kids who grew up in the 1980s, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn loved the films of John Hughes. He felt they were perfect in every way — except one. Molly Ringwald should have bashed someone’s skull in with a 2-by-4.
“[Refn and I] loved ‘Pretty in Pink’ but thought it would be awesome if it was more violent,” “Drive” star Ryan Gosling said at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Refn earned the best director award.
John Hughes plus violence sounds like the strangest (and most ill-fated) cinematic mash-up since cowboys met aliens. Not hardly. With Friday’s “Drive” — an atmospheric, noirish, occasionally ultraviolent crime thriller about a Hollywood stunt driver (Gosling) who takes side jobs piloting getaway cars during heists — Refn has produced one of the fall’s most talked-about films. And the unabashed fan of ’80s movies insists that “Drive” is an homage to the man who made “The Breakfast Club” and “Weird Science.”
“Since I was a teenager, I’ve been a big fan of ‘Sixteen Candles,’ ” Refn says. “I’ve always wanted to remake that film one way or another and, in a very unlikely way, I’ve done that with ‘Drive.’ ”
There are no forgotten birthdays in “Drive.” No panty viewings in the bathroom. Nothing in any way rom-com. Instead, Refn says he sought the spirit of the relationships in Hughes’ movies. Gosling’s character, known only as Driver, falls for his next-door neighbor (Carey Mulligan), whose husband (Oscar Isaac) is about to get out of prison.
“ ‘Drive’ was designed like a fairy tale,” he says. “The fairy tales always start innocent and fluffy, like ‘Sixteen Candles.’ I wanted the first half of the film to have that kind of boy-meets-girl. It never gets messy or complicated. It’s how we fantasize about true love when we’re young, before we get married and have kids and all the complications that come with that. Then, like Grimm’s fairy tales, when it turns dark, it turns very, very dark. And yet there are very strong morals, because good always prevails and evil is punished graphically.”
That punishment is where the violence comes in. Refn says adding gore to a fairy-tale-of-sorts is a natural combination of all the genres he loved growing up. His family moved to NYC from Denmark in 1978, and lived on West 18th Street before returning to Copenhagen in 1987.
“My film upbringing consisted of going to movies in Times Square on the way home from school,” Refn says. “You could say that ‘Drive’ is a mix of my obsessions from when I was young. I loved sentimental movies, like John Hughes, Frank Capra and Douglas Sirk. But I also watched ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.’ ”
Another way “Drive” is beholden to the 1980s is the soundtrack. The electro, retro-sounding song list includes cuts from Chromatics and Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx.
“John Hughes had really great soundtracks,” says Refn, who, incidentally, can’t drive. “He would play the songs for a really long time, so the songs actually had meaning. Remember in ‘Pretty in Pink,’ when Molly Ringwald kisses Andrew McCarthy and they were playing OMD? Oh, God. I still remember that scene.”
The film’s titles should also remind viewers of the ’80s. The font used for the film’s logo and credits is from “Risky Business,” and its neon pink color is very “Miami Vice.” The hue, however, is no homage. Refn is colorblind, and hot pink is one of the few colors he can see.
This handicap explains why his filmography, including the Viking epic “Valhalla Rising” and “Bronson,” has a distinct contrast-y look.
“That’s how I see the world,” he says. Plan to see more of his vision in the future: Refn intends to reteam with Gosling for a remake of “Logan’s Run,” a 1970s sci-fi cult film that has nothing to do with John Hughes. Or does it?